Page 80 of A Smooth Operator

"Yeah."

"God, Remi. We need to make decisions together, like a couple."

"Fine! Echo, will you marry me?"

"No. We've been together for five minutes," she retorted.

"See," I pointed out.

"You're a lunatic," she muttered as she walked out of my office.

"Yes, but I'm your lunatic, Doll," I reminded her.

Chapter 31

Echo

Ayear later

"Baby Doll," Remi called into the living room from our bedroom, straight out of the shower, buck naked.

"Yeah, honey?" I leaned against the kitchen island.

"Why do I have a ring on my finger?"

"We got engaged in the middle of the night."

He came up to me and looked at my hands. I wiggled my fingers so he could see I was wearing the ring he'd bought for me, the one he'd been hiding in his sock drawer for three months. I decided to finally put him out of his misery. It seemed wrong that only a man could give a woman a ring to announce his engaged status—so I got him a platinum band.

He looked at the ring on my finger and then at me.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"No. I thought since you moved in without telling me, I decided we should be engaged without me telling you." I put my hands on my hips in a challenge. "And the ring has an engraving."

He took the ring off and read what was written on the inside. "I love you, my smooth operator?"

I hugged him then; went on tip toe to kiss his lips softly. "You are, you know."

"A smooth operator?"

"My smooth operator."

He lifted me up, so my legs were around his waist.

"Hey, I have to go to work," I protested as he took me to our bedroom.

"We have to celebrate our engagement."

"We can do that tonight."

"Sorry, Doll, we got engaged in the middle of the night, so we need to fucking celebrate in the morning."

He threw me down on the bed.

"You're crazy," I told him, smiling from ear to ear because I was so happy.

Life with Remi was exciting as hell. Our schedules were messed up. He worked late, and I left for work early. We still had lunch together whenever we could. We still went on long rides on the Ducati on the weekends. We spent time with his family—and his Mama would never be my best friend, but she wasn't my enemy any longer.

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